On your bike - courtesy of Limerick Greenway

Barnagh on the Limerick Greenway. Photograph: Seán Curtin/True Media

Another glimmer of light from the pandemic is how it forced the powers that be to do some things they had been dragging their heels on for years. The cycling infrastructure across Ireland used to be woeful. Cycle lanes were few and far between and some of the ones in place were almost comically dangerous and treated by too many motorists as a handy bit of extra road space.

But after March 2020, local authorities were suddenly falling over themselves to install more and better cycle lanes all over the place to encourage people out of buses and to facilitate social distancing. As recently as last week, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan confirmed that the National Transport Authority (NTA) had allocated funds to Ireland’s local authorities with a view to spending €289 million on walking and cycling infrastructure in 2022.

Projects to be delivered this year include the Clontarf to city centre route in Dublin, MacCurtain Street in Cork, O’Connell Street in Limerick, the Salmon Weir Bridge in Galway, as well as connection of the Waterford Greenway from Bilberry into the city centre. Ryan said the projects as well as others coming down the, um, tracks will “make our urban centres more attractive places to live, work and visit. It is good for public health and the environment and promotes the most economic and efficient transport system.” Hard to argue with that.